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Episode-1426- Listener Feedback for 9-15-14

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Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Today on the Survival Podcast I take your comments, questions and thoughts on government, law enforcement, privacy, education, who are “they” and more.

Make sure if you submit content for a feedback show that you put something like “comment for jack”, “question for jack” or “article for jack” in the subject line to assure proper identification for my screening process.

Please understand I receive several hundred emails a day and can’t get them all on the air.

I also do put out a lot of information on Facebook from emails that I can’t fit on the program though so keep em coming.

Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On

  • Some follow up on “virtual nations”
  • Why is someone pointing to abuse by LEOs called a cop hater
  • If you keep your data private Comcast may threaten to drop your service
  • Yahoo threatened with 250,000 dollar a day fines for not reporting your data to the feds
  • A school in England is mandating finger print scanners for school lunches
  • A message from a listener about the hands of time
  • This Monday’s Prepper Scenario
  • Did you know Crepe Myrtle is a medicinal plant
  • America’s Big Game, A short story by  listener
  • A military officer is denied entry to a school, the bigger issue is…
  • The arrogance of American is seen in our attitude toward productive trees
  • Where do you go when you do want to hear the “news”, I say everywhere

Resources for today’s show…

This Monday’s Prepper Scenario

There is a knock on your door, it is a sheriff deputy or local police officer.  He tells you there is a chemical spill just up the road and mandatory evacuation has been ordered.  It is about 8pm, your spouse is in the shower, your kids are in PJs in front of the TV.  The threat is real and you understand and will comply with the order to evacuate. 

The officer doesn’t know how long it will last, he says likely at least a week and you need to move NOW, ten minutes to get out tops, what do you do?  The evacuation area is relatively small, about a mile in diameter.  

Last Monday’s Prepper Scenario

Today you walk into work, get called into HR, you are fired, there is no severance, there is only whatever your state pays in unemployment at your current status. You call your spouse to break the bad news on the way home, they tell you the same just happened to them, what do you do now?

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.

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Comments

Episode-1426- Listener Feedback for 9-15-14 — 52 Comments

  1. Thanks for the reading of my comment Jack. It is a great song, the I just searched for the lyrics:

    Life, so they say
    Is but a game and they’d let it slip away
    Love, like the autumn sun
    Should be dyin’ but it’s only just begun

    Like the twilight in the road up ahead
    They don’t see just where we’re goin’
    All the secrets in the universe whisper in our ears
    All the years come and go, take us up, always up

    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again

    Dreams, so they say
    Are for the fools and they let ’em drift away
    Peace, like the silent dove
    Should be flyin’ but it’s only just begun

    Like Columbus in the olden days
    We must gather all our courage
    Sail our ships out on the open seas cast away our fears and
    All the years come and go take us up, always up

    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again

    So I wanna laugh while the laughin’ is easy
    I wanna cry it makes it worthwhile
    I may never pass this way again
    That’s why I want it with you

    ‘Cause you make me feel like I’m more than a friend
    Like I’m the journey and you’re the journey’s end
    I may never pass this way again
    That’s why I want it with you

    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again
    We may never pass this way again

    • I have a lot of control over my feelings but ultimately my feelings are my feelings and I will feel what I may. What I CAN control are my actions. Thus, you might offend me and I might feel like punching you in the nose but as long as I DO NOT punch you in the nose, we’re OK.

      As Jack implied in the podcast… passing a law to make me do something is like pulling out a gun and forcing me to do something. If I would do it anyway, I suppose I wouldn’t feel too resentful about it, but if it was something I absolutely did not want to do, a peace officer would attempt to make me comply. At that point I must make a decision because if I defy the order of a peace officer, what will happen next will be nothing peaceful at all.

  3. Regarding the idea of “No agenda,” this is actually a contraction of a longer phrase… “No HIDDEN Agenda.” The word “hidden” is supposedly understood, but it is no longer understood. This is how language changes. First a phrase is spelled out. Then it is shortened because we assume we are not idiots. Then we become idiots and forget what the assumptions were when we used the shortened phrase in the first place.

    I’ve seen the same thing happen to the words “murder” and “kill.” These words are currently in transition. They no longer have firm meanings. If you listen to a nightly news report about someone being murdered you will realize that the word “kill” is being used interchangeably with murder and often used in the wrong context.

    We recently saw the word “lie” make this transition. It no longer means “telling an untruth with intent to deceive”. Now it ALSO means “telling an untruth regardless of intent” or “telling a truth that is technically correct but later it makes me angry because I didn’t realize what was implied so I feel misled rather than admitting that I’m a dumb@ss.”

    The definition is a little too long. It still needs work. 🙂

    Alex

  4. Great show in total! I was stoked to hear the segment about Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) – I actually had been looking into usable properties of the same plant not too long ago. The seeds of the plant are another great medicinal, they are narcotic and have been used as a painkiller and a sleep aid. Some good info can be found here:
    Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh
    http://www.mpbd.info/plants/lagerstroemia-indica.php

    and 2 scientific journal articles, one is an identification of compounds found in Crape Myrtle:
    http://sphinxsai.com/2013/janmar/chempdf/CT=66(478-481)JM13.pdf

    http://lib-ojs3.lib.sfu.ca:8114/index.php/era/article/viewFile/748/471

    Thanks again, Jack!

    • It’s the same eye rolling trite arguments in the article. The answer to “can users trust tor” is yes. Tor is what it is, which is an anonymizer via proxies. While it wraps traffic in multiple layers of SSL (link an onion) the end nodes still have the same issues of man in the middle issues, etc, so somebody sending unencrypted things (like username and passwords) to websites are available to all hosting a Tor proxy.

      The US government uses Tor to anonymize it’s traffic between individuals in the field sending content to and from trusted sources (yes, some end nodes are US government computers, for a reason).

      Other than unencrypted content, the in general attempts by the US government to identify a person using Tor traffic, is much more of an “in theory” type of thing, but is EYE ROLLINGLY not worth anybody’s time paying attention it.

    • FYI on TOR (The Onion Router)… the so-called anonymizing network… it does that job somewhat but it’s a slight-of-hand trick depending on multiple random routings between TOR servers that is difficult to track and those servers are run by volunteers… and… I suspect… the CIA and NSA are some of the notable “volunteers”. While your traffic is encrypted, if your exit route is off of an NSA server, they can glean more information that you might like.

      Does this make a difference?

      Probably not. It’s a royal pain in the neck to trace someone through the TOR network. The guy running “Silk Road” through the TOR network didn’t get caught this way. He was caught using old-fashioned police work.

      So… you can use a TOR browser but keep in mind the limits of the TOR network itself… and a warning for those who decide to run their own TOR server…

      If you decide to run your own TOR server, I have noticed that such people will occasionally be accused of facilitating the distribution of child porn. As a server operator, you can’t track what your users are doing on your server unless you are the exit route and as I said before, your knowledge of that activity will be limited. Nevertheless, for some odd reason, certain people running such servers are accused of this crime and others are not. It seems to be a case of selective prosecution and I wonder why certain people are not selected. Know what I mean?

      “Tor Node Operator Arrested On Child Porn Charges”
      http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112740282/child-porn-the-onion-router-operator-120312/

      He was released shortly thereafter but the police never shutdown his TOR server. It was located 500 km away. It is possible to run these servers remotely and severs are cheap enough that I have often thought that having rogue servers located here and there would be an interesting idea. (I would never actually do such a thing, of course, but it’s an interesting idea.)

      Many of my ideas have come from (read as stolen from) Steve Gibson at Gibson Research. I have been following him since his article in InfoWorld in the 1980s. He produces a technical security podcast called Security Now. You can find full transcripts of his podcast at…

      https://grc.com

      Click on “Services” and the “Security Now”. He also appears on YouTube and Roku on the Twit Network with the same podcast. (I am not associated with Steve Gibson in any way. I am just a fan.)

      Alex Shrugged

    • Regarding Virtual Private Networks (VPN), you can buy such services from reputable vendors. They allow you to route your network packets securely through various servers so that you appear to be coming from Amsterdam or Dallas…. because, in fact, your packets will exit through nodes located in those cities and other cities if you wish. According to the law in the United States, the laws under which you are subject are the laws in which the server resides. Thus, if your packets come out in Amsterdam you must comply with the laws in Amsterdam. (This puts a slight crimp in Jack’s “Virtual Nation” but it’s not insurmountable. You can change the server your packets come out of by changing servers and thus change the laws you are subject to.)

      As I recall, the TOR network has a similar configuration service. I don’t have TOR installed at the moment so they may have changed that. I’ll have to install it again to make sure.

      Remember that the current Internet was not designed with end-to-end security in mind. The whole darn thing was an after-thought… frankly. It is amazing how well designed it is but it’s designed for durability during a nuclear strike. It’s not designed for security.

      Alex

    • Alex, I’m also a huge Steve Gibson fan. The guy is a genius. I borrow/steal as many ideas as I can from him. LastPass, password haystacks, and especially SpinRite. I’ve tried to use his OffTheGrid System, but it hurts my head.

  6. In my opinion, there is likely much more going on behind the scenes with the comcast tor thing. What is LIKELY is that the users were allowing their personal computers to be nodes (whether regular or end nodes) for Tor, turning their internet connection into a proxy. It is likely that these nodes were used enough to the point where the bandwidth they were using, was noteworthy.

    Doesn’t matter which provider you have using your computer as a proxy isn’t allowed. But really from what I’ve seen providers don’t do anything unless you’re either way out of control (bandwith usage) or they get the tap on the shoulder that a user they have is doing something illegal (think pirating some stupid pop star’s music or popular software).

  7. Monday Prepper Scenario response:

    1) Getting my wife out of the shower would be the hardest part.
    2) While she was getting out I would do my best to grab p.j.’s diapers, a change of clothes for the kids, socks and underwear for me and the wife.
    3) grab wallet, phone, keys, phone charger
    4) load the dog and family into the car and drive to my parents ~30 miles away.

    Weaknesses –
    1) no contingency plan for the poultry – they’d be pretty much dead if we were gone for longer than 3 days.
    2) We would have to buy new clothes if we were gone for more than 36 hours.
    3) I forgot my laptop so I need to borrow a computer or buy a new one, or take unplanned vacation from work – and wouldn’t have many files until I got back into the house.

    Strengths
    1) I remembered the essentials and nobody (except maybe the poultry) dies 2)I’m lucky that I have another location so close where I can stay on no notice
    3) I can work remotely so long as I have access to computer/internet

    • @MattInWisconsin,

      We discussed this weakness (the birds) yesterday (Dorothy and I) in the car. Our best plan was since we keep a ton of feed on hand. Leave all the doors to the coups and pens open, dump most of the food on the ground and hope for the best. It does begin to make one think more about automation of door/gates, larger water systems and automated high capacity feeders.

      Would the chemicals kill the birds? May be but may be not at least they have a shot if left out. I can’t see anyway I can even consider loading up 80 chickens, 24 ducks and 8 geese, so it is the only option.

  8. I decided to grab my Emergency Binder and type the checklist…. Can’t find the damn thing… FAIL… Gotta fix that.. so pulled it off my dropbox.
    Since wife is in the shower We will go with the 5 minute plan, I included the 30 minute plan just in case there is a bit more time.

    IMMEDIATE
    Grab and Go Bags
    Emergency Plan
    Wallet
    Keys
    Cell
    Shut off Air and appliances if time and prudent (Set HEAT at 55F and HOLD, Fan OFF)
    Kids and DOG
    LOCK HOUSE IF TIME AND PRUDENT

    FIVE MINUTES
    Above
    Laptops (power supplies if time)
    CASH from Location where cash is….
    Pistol & Clips (yes CLIPS, don’t be a jerk) & Holster (Place in travel case or just grab the safe)
    Shut off Air and appliances if time and prudent (Set HEAT at 55F and HOLD, Fan OFF) (If shutting off Electricity/Heat, Kill H2O also, drain pipes)
    Empty Safe into bag (BAG IN SAFE) – IF TIME
    LOCK HOUSE

    THIRTY MINUTES
    Above
    STAGE IN LR Near Door.
    Grab 4 garbage bags (5 minutes in each room, throw in clothes, 1 bag per person)
    Empty Safe into bag (BAG IN SAFE)
    CASH (from Place where cash is….)
    Guns & ammo if time
    Jewelry
    Radios (Ham, Scanners)
    External HDD (From Place where External HDD is…)
    Shutdown Air and appliances, also water, gas, electricity IF PRUDENT and Time permit (Set HEAT at 55F and HOLD, Fan OFF) (If shutting off Electricity/Heat, Kill H2O also, drain pipes)
    Load Gas Can(s) if possible/prudent
    LOCK HOUSE & GARAGE

    • Oh forgot, since we are talking a 1mi radius we would go to the closest Hotel listed in our emergency plan for convenience. If that was not available we would work our way toward my workplace (again convenience).

      • HOURS Checklist
        IF ONE ADULT PRESENT
        If potentially Hostile situation, gun up First

        Pre-Stage
        -Go-Bags
        -Wallet, Keys, Cell, E-Plan, Radios
        -Pack Travel Bags (garbage bag for rest of clothes)
        -Cash, Safe, Jewlery (in a Grab Bag)
        -Pack food in tubs
        -Send communications to all who need to know re our status and destination (if possible)
        -Computers, External HDDs, Etc.
        -If possible Back SUV into Garage and pre-load (fill from can if time)
        -Secure Perimeter (Check locks, put down shades)
        -Grab HAM and Scanners (+power if possible)
        -Shutdown Utilities before it’s time to leave if possible and prudent, (Set HEAT at 55F and HOLD, Fan OFF) (If shutting off Electricity/Heat, Kill H2O also, drain pipes)(Electric, Water, Gas, AC)

        IF TWO ADULTS PRESENT
        If potentially Hostile situation, gun up First
        Adult #1 Takes SUV and fills tank if less than ¾ full, checks tires and oil, tops off if needed (if this might be a dangerous situation this person should go armed)
        Back Car In
        Place Charger/compressor in car
        Gather weapons for travel
        Adult #2 Do (1 Adult Present tasks in above)

  9. The deep web, as accessed through Tor, may not have a lot of assassinations being set up, but it is a significant source of distributed child porn. Not defending Comcast, but there are legitimate bad actors using that system.

    Conflicted Monday: Well, I’m single so I get to ignore the wife and kids part. First would be calling my family. My immediate family all lives withing a fifteen to twenty minute drive of each other, so at least some of them would almost certainly be effected. After that, though, it’s pretty simple.

    Between what I keep in the car and the go bag in my closet, ten minutes is plenty of time to pack another few changes of clothes and a few other things and get out the door. Since this isn’t TEOTW I’d just get well out of the danger zone and find a hotel/motel a bit further out to stay.

    • Whoops, forgot about the mile radius part. Eh, I’d still check in with my sister, who lives closest, anyways.

  10. Prepper Monday Scenario

    Chaotic, but doable. In this scenario, if you aren’t organized, you are screwed. If you aren’t, you might as well just leave with what you can grab and deal with whatever the consequences of that are when the dust settles. Hopefully you have homeowner’s insurance to cover any financial impact that might have.

    10 minutes:

    Get wife out of shower and into clothes, kids go into the car with their pillows and a blanket as is. We are going “camping.”

    Animals are on their own. It sucks, but it is what it is.

    All of this gets thrown in the back of the vehicle:
    Fire safe, which has cash, important documents, and other resources (spare credit card, check, etc)
    External hard drive with family photos, etc

    Shut off breakers, water, gas, etc, on the way out of the garage.

    Proceed to secondary location (hotel or family’s home) some distance away.

    Walmart trip the next day to buy clothing and other essentials.

  11. I am offended that others are offended. Where are my rights to be protected from you offending me with the fact that you are offended? In the words of my Dad suck it up and quit your belly aching.

  12. Hi all, I am the ‘she’ Christopher was referring to in his email to Jack. I like to know one medicinal use for every plant i see, and happened to notice Crepe Myrtles sunday and set out to learn if they were edible or medicinal. Being diabetic and not able to use any of the drugs currently avaible, i was very excited to find omegaprepper’s website. I checked out the links listed for webmd and the other references, and decided to make the tea. I checked my sugar before and after drinking the tea. i tested 5 minutes after i drunk the tea, and its already down 85 points!! I even had to add honey cuz the tea was watery. I will be testing a lot today, i want to see how long the effect lasts. So far so good, but as with all herbs and people, results vary. Be careful, go slow. 🙂

      • Update: 1 cup of tea has lowered my sugar 100points gradually over 2 hours. Im not much of a tea drinker, but this stuff is ok. I did see a small initial spike, possibly due to the honey i used for a bit of flavoring, but in the end it didnt matter. I think ive found my new favorite drink 🙂

        Conflicted monday: i’d hollar to Chris to get out of the tub NOW, then i’d go tell my granny to go get in the car. Chris will have heard too, and would be getting the BOBs while I loaded the cat in the crate and leashed the dogs. Granny would be putting on her shoes while i loaded the animals, then i would help her get in the car while Chris got some food and water. He would load the food, water and BOBs on top of granny’s walker while i got the meds, important papers, turned off the lights and air. We’d lock the door and set the burglar alarm to away, he’d drive granny and the girls in granny’s car, i would drive our van that he takes to work and we’d all head over to my mom’s house. 😀 its a bit of a reversal, usually mom n dad and family come crash at my granny’s in winter when the power goes out because she has a natual gas hot water heater and stove, in addition to her fireplace.

        I will keep posting my tea results, i have 1 cupful left before i have to brew more. The links posted in a comment above about banaba’s are very good, thank you.

    • Yes! Please keep us updated on your crape myrtle experiment! 85 points is a pretty big drop.

      Kinda funny how nature works. The south is known for its heavier people (Mississippi has the highest percentage of obese and overweight) who probably have blood sugar issues and the partial* solution to their woes is all around them!

      *I say partial because we, as a society, still eat so much sugar that drinking crape myrtle tea shouldn’t be used as an excuse to keep eating sugar.

    • Do you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes? Most of the stuff I am reading is about testing on those with Type 2, but my daughter is Type 1.
      I don’t like the idea of tea from a few leaves, as it would seem to be too variable in dosage. 85 points is amazing, but scary also. Are you stabilizing dosages by starting with a large batch and then doing small samples?
      Be safe.

      • Type 2, and i made a large batch first. A 1 cup measuring cup is a pretty standard unit of measure, and i thought that would be a good starting place. I got 3 1/2 cups out of my first batch, i drank the last today. I dont think i used enough leaves, as far as unswwetened tea goes, it was pretty watery, but better than i expected.

        If you are going to have your daughter try it, make sure you monitor her blood sugar before and after she takes it, especially after. She may need a bite of peanut butter or something if it drops too low.

    • Cosmic ray hit a neuron. 🙂

      No big deal though I worry myself about making errors in a public forum like a podcast. In the history segments I provide quotes in the footnotes when I think I’m saying something controversial so that folks know I’m not pulling this stuff out of midair, but it is still possible to make mistakes.

      Corrections and contrary opinions are welcome.

      Alex

  14. I like how Steph just handles those “you are just a cop hater.” Say, that’s not an argument, I’ll respond when you give me one. Don’t let the ad ad hominem get to you.

  15. About the analogy of the airplane ride to our system and what they are designed to do. Consider Simon Black’s aritcle at Zero Hedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-16/seems-be-going-well

    So people are ready for a change. That could be dangerous, be careful about what you wish for. For me I consider this system a train wreck but am very aware of the populace’s dangerous affinity for a strong arm ruler. But this system that I consider to be a train wreck is not a system that is in the spirit of the Constitution as intended by the 1800’s authors, but a bastardization of it coupled with socialism and fascism.

    So yes, I favor getting off this plane and onto a new vehicle (analogically speaking) but the vehicle I endeavor to board is one that is an updated version of the original constitution.

  16. Hey Jack. You mentioned in this episode you had a link to a video that proved what happened at Benghazi. I didn’t see it in the episode notes. Could you share it here, please?

    Thanks

  18. Jack, I think you are falling prey to the false dichotomy that you often talk about concerning politics when it comes to “bad cop” behavior and what fellow “good” officers should do about it. The implication there is if good officers took a stand things would be better-they won’t. Good officers arrest and fine people every day for things that shouldn’t even be crimes. If for some accidental reason you had a pistol in a place where it wasn’t allowed and were arrested, and you were facing prison, fines, and a loss of your livelihood, would it really matter if the arresting officer was courteous and professional? The whole “bad apples” argument is a distraction from the true problem. Police forces get paid by and follow the orders of the ruling class. Sure they do good things for people; control does have its side benefits. In a strange way bad cops are doing us a service by exposing the naked aggression and control instead of hiding it under a veneer of polite professionalism, and dispelling the myth that the police were ever about the people.

    • It may sound ridiculous but I think if what we have now were to work there isn’t “enough” cops. Sounds ridiculous yes yes I know, but one major thing that I’ve seen is that as populations have grown larger more and more of those who may assist with “making peace” are less and less ACTUALLY part of the community they are “serving”. Obviously with very small towns this is totally different and what ends up happening is you don’t exactly have cops “following the law to the T”. They get to know people and arrest them for when somebody maybe “should” be arrested. You can only know those kinds of things about people if you know them. “That boy ain’t actin’ right”. How could you know that without knowing the people well?

      There is also a side effect of that and that is the classic favortism, etc. This is just the nature of government. There are positives to rule by law and “rule of men” and there are sure as hell negatives.

      What makes most sense to me is looking at what Geoff Lawton (my guess from Bill Mollison) is just that human settlements are just way out of scope.

      • I think I agree because I think I get what you are saying.

        Dallas Fort Worth as a metroplex (I call it a metro mess) has about 6.5 million people, many in very high density. There are dozens of large police forces here. Many more small ones. These officers deal daily with people then don’t know from Adam.

        I think what you are saying is those 6.5 million people should be in many more far less dense settlements hopefully being good stewards to the land in those settlements. Small town village size stuff. A few to perhaps at most 10,000 people.

        If you did that the total number of officers SERVING those 6.5 million would be higher but the officers would know by name the citizens they serve.

        This of course would apply to a lot more than the police. For instance when we lived in Minersville, PA I knew by name almost every cop, I knew the Mayor as well. The owners of the local banks, the Monsignor Priest of both the Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic churches, etc. And that was as a teenager.

        Right now I don’t even know or care who the mayor of Fort Worth is, I only know the cops I know for reasons other than they are cops like one is my brother in law.

        • Exactly. The reality is to have a government that works, and is representative, requires SIGNIFICANTLY more resources. But that is the nature of distributed systems. But what you’d end up finding out is you don’t need so much DEDICATED resources for those jobs. You just don’t need a mayor whose full time job is mayoring. Or even police officers who full time jobs are “policing”. Maybe you have a few, perhaps the “chief” or the manager controlling the units. This ALREADY EXISTS in small towns. My uncle is a volunteer fire fighter (to what extent I don’t know) but he always has his radio on him listening to the chatter of other just REALLY regular guys who are taking care of their community.

          Most of the police shennanigans would end immediately. You don’t brutalize you know (generally). The more you look at people as foreigners, or not your kin, the more often you treat them like things. What about when you drive on the road? “FUCK THIS GUY, I HOPE HE RUNS OFF THE ROAD AND BLOWS UP”. Father, nice guy, upstanding citizen, but because he’s “just some guy” (not a community member to you) he’s just some asshole who deserves to blow up.

          Swat bullshit would mostly end as well. What happens in other countries is if government or some douche bag military person comes in and does something the town doesn’t like, you get the WHOLE town involved. “Hey why are you over there? No you’re not taking that kid, he didn’t do anything wrong”.

    • In this discussion what is missing is the role that religion plays. As Alexis de Tocqueville opined, this country does not work without God.

      Why?

      Because a people who believe that God is watching their actions will require a much smaller and less oppressive police force to keep everyone in line. If God is NOT watching then the police (or NSA or CIA) must watch them.

      As Voltaire said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”

      And I will follow with a necessary warning from Voltaire, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

      And to support Jack in this thread…

      “The best is the enemy of the good.” — Voltaire.

      Alex

    • No the point is we are not going to decriminalize many actions that should be decriminalized tomorrow. Cops have a job to do, period.

      They and many people really believe these are actual crimes and need enforcing. Well that simply is what it is. It is what we have for now. Do I want to do what you want to do, sure, when is it going to happen, it will take decades.

      So no I am not going to act like a child and hold my breath until then. If good cops spoke up, intervened and reported bad cops the problem would be less.

      Is that “treating the symptom” you bet but sometimes that is what can be done for the time being.

  20. It is pronounced 4 Ringer; four as in the number, ringer as in what a phone does. (no big deal Drill Sgts in Basic called me Foreigner, Fourfinger, the list goes on. You spelling it out though was great.

    Thanks for reading my story Jack, a great deal of traffic to my blog because of it. I did change one word, mainly because you stumbled over it, and I realized it did not make sense the way I wrote it.

  21. Jack, please don’t jump down my throat for pointing this out, but fruit-bearing trees out in the right-of-way tend to leave a mess when they drop fruit and it rots. Some folks pick or clean up one by their house but the vast majority (at least in my city, where many old fruit trees are being phased out), leave slicks and pits on the sidewalk – a liability for the city gov’t.
    This is a case where the general pop’n lacks the care to take advantage of the free food source. Arrogant indeed, but I don’t blame the gov’t for responding by minimizing their work and liabilities.

    • I was going to say the same thing. I blame the lawyers. They probably don’t plant flowing plants to avoid bees and the possibility of liability from people getting stung.

    • No your point is valid but if the city simply encouraged the use of the resource the problem would not exist.

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